Former head of abrogated northwestern federal district directorate of Interior Ministry and his accomplices jailed

A court has recognized the evidence gathered by the Major Cases Directorate of the Investigative Committee as sufficient to convict former employees of the Northwestern Federal District Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior, including its former head Vitaly Bykov, his former deputy Alexander Monastyrshin, former head of financial and economic office Sbetlana Shatova, head of the logistics center Ivan Lozyuk, and deputy head of the secrecy, staff and state service office Irina Burkhanova. Depending on the role of each one they were found guilty of misappropriation or embezzlement under Part 4 of Article 160, forgery under Part 2 of Article 292 and attempted fraud under Part 3 of Article 30, part 4 of Article 159 of the RF Criminal Code.

According to investigators, in the period between 5 and 14 May 2014, the accused stole 19.1 million rubles of budget money disguised as paying bonuses of between 340 and 700 thousand rubles to former employees of the directorate. Additionally, the accused tried to fraudulently get hold of 21 flats worth more than 100 million rubles and built for police officers.

The court has sentenced Bykov to 7 years in a minimum-security correctional facility and a fine of 400,000 rubles. He was also stripped off his rank of Major General of Police. Monastyrshin got 3.5 years and was stripped off special rank of Colonel of Police. Lozyuk got 5 years in a minimum-security correctional facility and a fine of 200,000 rubles and was stripped of the rank of Colonel of Internal Service. Shatova and Burkhanova received suspended sentences of 4 years and 3.5 years respectively.